March 7th, 2002 - December 27th, 2017 🌈

We are beyond heartbroken. Our sweet little Bosco passed over the rainbow bridge early Wednesday morning. He went peacefully at home on his bed with his favorite blankets and I was right by his side comforting him. My heart is shattered into a million pieces and the house is so lonely without him. I literally have a pit in my stomach and pain in my heart.

It wouldn’t be kidney disease that took him, but congestive heart failure.

After a few months of ups and downs, I truly believe he was ready to be pain free. We noticed his health started to decline over the weekend, but he held on for one more Christmas together. There are even a few of his presents still wrapped under the tree. :( We took him to the vet on Tuesday but she wasn't very optimistic and after an xray, he had a lot of fluid in his lungs. We immediately started medicine to try and drain them and hoped it would work over the coming days. We came home and he was pretty tired out from a long day and Brandon went to work. As the night went on, I noticed his breathing was even more abnormal and I just knew it was his time. The hardest part was being alone and the frantic call I had to make to Brandon. He rushed home from work but he was too late. Our sweet boy was gone.

Bosco, thank you for the almost 16 years of love, happiness and memories you brought to our lives. We hope you are already enjoying all the donuts and chicken you can eat and are keeping all of our family members and fur friends in heaven company. You will live in our hearts forever until we meet again one day....

You no longer greet me as I walk through the door.
You're not there to make me smile, to make me laugh anymore.
Life seems quiet without you, you were far more than a pet.
You were a family member, a friend... a loving soul I'll never forget.
It will take time to heal - for the silence to go away.
I still listen for you, and miss you every day.
You were such a great companion, constant, loyal and true.
My heart will always wear, the pawprints left by you.
-Teri Harrison

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays
'Cause no matter how far away you roam
If you want to be happy in a million ways
For the holidays you can't beat home sweet home!

Last Friday we headed up to Maryland to visit my sister-in-law and have a festive Holiday weekend. I've been wanting to visit DC during the Christmas season for 3 years now, basically since she moved there. (She lives in Frederick which is a super charming town and a short drive to DC) We finally found a weekend when everyone was off  and made it happen! (my sister drove in from Pittsburgh too!) So here's a little (but lengthy) recap...

Happy Wednesday friends! Can you believe we're almost a week into December? And there are only 19 days until Christmas?! Since everything in your house is done up and festive, why not add a little cheer and Holiday spirit to your desktops as well? Links to download below. Enjoy!

As a kid, we had an artificial one and I loved it! With colorful lights, gold garland and filled with all our childhood ornaments - it definitely wouldn't be instagram worthy these days, but it was so pretty to us! And since Brandon and I've have had 8 (married) Christmases together, we've had a mix of real and fake. We went the fake route the last 3 years though because we went Florida for two weeks and I didn't want it to die.

But this year, we got a real tree!